


I Don’t Even Know My Last Name

by mochegato



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Maribat - Fandom, Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Established Relationship... Kind of, F/M, Identity Reveal, Las Vegas Wedding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-03
Updated: 2020-09-03
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:35:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,666
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26259511
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mochegato/pseuds/mochegato
Summary: Marinette and Jason wake up in Vegas with no memory of the night before and have to try to figure out who each other is and what happened.Y’all know how this is going to go already.In which they are idiots about identities and we are all Roy.
Relationships: Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug & Roy Harper, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug/Jason Todd, Roy Harper & Jason Todd
Comments: 9
Kudos: 252





	I Don’t Even Know My Last Name

As Marinette slowly entered back into consciousness her brain started trying to make sense of the world around her. Why was her head throbbing? Why was she waking up before her alarm? And how bad had the fight been last night to warrant her feeling like this today? They had been fighting someone, right? Maybe? Thinking really hurt right now. Everything hurt. Except whatever she was laying on. That felt really, really nice. Everything but the cloud she was on hurt. The cloud could stay, everything else had to go, including thinking. Thinking could wait until later. There was absolutely nothing she needed to know right now that was urgent enough to warrant making her head hurt more.

She groaned as she tentatively opened her eyes. It wasn’t a cloud, it was a bed. A really fluffy, white bed. She greatly approved of this bed. Whoever’s bed this was, because this was not her bed… and this was not her room, which made sense since it wasn’t her bed. She congratulated herself on successfully following that logic process without causing a migraine. 

How had she ended up in this amazing bed that didn’t belong to her? She didn’t remember going home with anyone. Actually, she didn’t remember anything from last night… what happened in that fight? If there was a fight. Was there one? You know what, still not urgent enough to warrant the pain of thinking.

She groaned and closed her eyes again. She was just starting to ease back to sleep when she felt arms wrap around her from behind. She whisper squealed and fell out of the bed as she fumbled to get away from the offending arms. 

This! This was more important than the pain. This warranted thinking, remembering. Recalling what happened last night, who she had gone home with, and why. 

Marinette waited a few seconds huddled against the bed, getting into a position to fight, should she need to. She waited to see what the person in the bed would do next… which was apparently to let out a quiet snore? She needed to take stock of the situation and come up with a plan. She might be… oh God, naked. She was naked. She squeezed her eyes shut in frustration and let out a steadying breath. She might be naked, but she was still Ladybug, damn it. She slowly raised her head just high enough over the edge of the bed to observe the person still asleep in it. 

The first thing she noticed was he was a very large man. He seemed like he would be tall, maybe even as tall as her dad. His broad, exposed chest and arms were solid, toned muscle. He had a number of scars marking up his chest indicating violent past. Despite the violence on his body, his face looked completely at peace. He had beautifully defined features with high cheekbones and a squared jaw. His tousled, black hair fell over his eyes. He was an extremely handsome man… who she did not remotely recognize. She had gone home with a total stranger. This was a disaster! She needed to figure out what happened RIGHT NOW.

“Tikki?” she called out quietly. “Tikki where are you?” She whisper shouted a little louder this time, trying to keep quiet enough not to wake the stranger. It must have still been a little too loud because just then the man let out a sleepy grunt surprising the already on edge Marinette. She eeped in response, grabbing the comforter off the bed as she fell backwards. She quickly wrapped the comforter around herself to try and protect some kind of modesty in her decidedly immodest state. 

The movement of the comforter managed to finally wake the man. He started groaning quietly before opening his eyes to look around the room, taking in the surroundings for himself. His eyes settled on her and he squeezed his eyes shut with a grunt. 

Jason had been having a really good dream. He couldn’t remember what he had been dreaming about exactly, but there were a lot of flashes of dark hair, captivating blue eyes, soft yielding lips, bare skin, and beautifully enticing moans. The eyes and hair were very familiar features to him. He knew who he had been dreaming about. It wasn’t the first time he had dreamed about her. The woman in front of him was not her. 

“Fuck” he said as he ran his hand over his face in an attempt to force more awareness into his mind. What the fuck had he done? He was definitely in love with someone else. He had been dreaming about her last night. How did he end up in a hotel room… hotel room? Yeah, probably. This was too pristine to be someone’s actual bedroom… in a hotel room with not her? 

“No offense sweetheart, but who the fuck are you?” the man grumbled out sitting up.

Instead of upsetting her, his blunt manner calmed Marinette slightly. It was good to know she wasn’t the only one who had no idea what was going on. “Nice. If I could remember anything about last night myself, I might be offended,” she responded wryly. “I’m Marinette. And you?”

“Jason”

“Nice to meet you Jason.” 

“Yeah, you too.”

He looked at the woman, Marinette, who he had spent the night with… black hair, blue eyes, very soft looking lips, definitely bare skin under that comforter… Had he been dreaming about her? Or, did he go to bed with her because she looked a little like Ladybug? Oh shit. Did he sleep with her because she reminded him of Ladybug? Classy, Jason, real fucking classy.

Marinette backed up against the far wall trying to make sense of the situation. How had it happened? She was in love with Red Hood. They had been getting closer to actually dating, or she thought they were. Did something happen between them last night? Is that why she went home with someone else? She looked at the man, Jason, again. His head was in his hands, gently rubbing his head like he was trying to rub away a hangover. Folded over like that with his face covered, he looked like Hood. He had the same body frame. Oh God. What if she went home with him because she had a fight with Hood and Jason reminded her of him?

Looking for anything to cling to so the situation wasn’t as bad as she thought, she looked up at him with pleading eyes and asked, “You don’t suppose there is any chance that we didn’t actually… you know.”

He stared at her incredulously for a few seconds. She could not be serious could she? Yep, that look of panicked desperation definitely indicated she was. “Sure, we can go with that if you really want,” he swung his legs over the side of the bed being careful not to jostle his throbbing head too much. He scanned the floor for his clothes. Underwear, pants, anything. It was a large room, they must have decided to spring for something really nice. That was unusual for him. But, with a room this large, there were lots of places the clothes could have been thrown.

His first scan didn’t reveal any clothes, his or hers. Seriously, there must be clothes somewhere, they couldn’t have walked in naked. Maybe in their drunken haze they decided to throw their clothes away? He checked the trash can next to the night stand and sighed at the sight. Well, there goes the hope for chastity. “But, that used… fuck, _those_ used condoms say otherwise.”

Marinette groaned and hit her head on the wall sliding down it. What had she done? Even if she wasn’t dating Hood, it felt like she had betrayed him. She needed to figure out what happened last night. She needed to know how badly she had screwed up before she faced Hood again. “What do you remember from last night? Anything?”

“No, nothing. But if I can get my phone, I might be able to get some clues. Any ideas where our clothes are?” he asked wrapping a sheet around his waist and standing tentatively.

“Oooo, that’s a good idea. No, no idea. Honestly, I haven’t made it that far yet this morning.” She furrowed her brow, rubbing her forehead when suddenly her head shot up, immediately letting out a loud groan. That was a mistake. She dropped her head back down quickly and started rubbing it again to ease the ache she just caused. “But I have an idea.” She walked over to the hotel phone and punched a series of buttons. A few seconds later he heard ringing in the other room. “…We have two rooms. Probably should have figured that out already. Stupid, damn hangover.”

They pulled their makeshift covers tighter around themselves and opened the door to the living room. Marinette gasped and Jason exhaled heavily at the sight. It was a mess. Things were knocked over throughout the room and there was a trail of clothing starting with her ripped underwear hanging on the doorknob and his now buttonless shirt strewn over a pair of overnight bags and purse that had been dropped by the front door.

“We came prepared.” They must have met, hit it off, decided to come here, gone home and _packed a bag_ , then met at the hotel to get a room. And clearly had enjoyed it if her ripped dress laying at her feet was any indication.

“It wasn’t a spur of the moment thing. We thought this through. We planned. What the hell kind of drug does that?” He grabbed his phone out of his pants pocket and started scanning through his phone. “Check your texts. If we planned this, we might have texted someone about it.”

“Oh, that’s brilliant!” She grabbed her phone out of her purse and looked through her calls and texts. There were a few calls from her business partner but only one text since yesterday, from Spoiler… She didn’t have Spoiler’s phone number on her personal phone. At least she didn’t used to. Apparently that changed last night. ‘Hey, I know you said to watch the earrings and don’t try them on. Is that a hard rule? Is there wiggle room in there? Also, how long am I supposed to sit on these? When are you getting back?’ She immediately reached up to her ears and noticed her earrings were not there. She gasped loudly.

WHAT HAPPENED LAST NIGHT!!?? Now she knew why Tikki didn’t respond earlier. She wasn’t just hiding, Marinette had given her to Spoiler to hold for her. Why had she done that? She was never separated from Tikki. What had she been thinking! Clearly she hadn’t been thinking, that was the entire problem with last night. Tikki must have been acting as the voice of reason, warning her against doing all the things she was doing and Marinette decided she didn’t want to hear her anymore. Excellent. Terrible friend. Terrible guardian. Terrible romancer. 

“What did you find?”

“Uh, nothing. Just a… uh… friend asking how long I’m planning on being gone.” She answered absentmindedly. “Huh, I wonder what she meant ‘gone’. Did she think I was leaving?”

Marinette looked at the text quizzically for a few seconds before her eyes widened. “Oh my God! You don’t think…”

Jason jumped up and ran to the curtains in front of the balcony doors, ripping them open. “Fucking fuck,” he sighed heavily opening up the drapes so she could see the view beyond. A very distinctive view. A huge fountain and a street lined with casinos. “Because we did. We’re in Vegas”

“How did… How did we get here?” She asked coming to stand next to him in a daze, staring at the Vegas Strip in terrified wonder.

“No idea,” he said in a defeated voice. “This is so much more complicated than I thought. We should see what we can piece together. Maybe over food. I’m starving.”

“Yeah, me too. I think I want to take a shower first if you don’t mind.”

“No, go ahead. I think I’ll do the same after you do,” Marinette gave him a small nod and picked up her bag before heading into the bedroom.

As soon as Marinette walked out of the living room, Jason called Tim. He picked up on the fifth ring, annoying Jason more than he was already. “What the fuck happened last night?” Jason demanded before Tim could even say Hi.

“Well Good Morning to you, too. What do you mean what happened? Don’t you remember?” Tim asked.

“Would I be asking you if I remembered, Replacement?” he growled back.

“Damn, you must have been hit with the toxin too,” Tim mused.

“What toxin?” Jason asked, apprehension edging into his voice.

“You didn’t seem to be affected, just a cut on your leg you were going to go home and patch up. We thought your mask protected you.” Jason moved the sheet around his waist to look at his leg, only now noticing the patched up thigh. “You didn’t do anything stupid last night, did you?”

“How stupid are you looking for? What was the toxin?”

Before Tim could answer Jason heard Marinette give out a loud gasp followed by a strangled noise. Jason ran into the bedroom, almost forgetting to keep ahold of his sheet in his rush to check on Marinette. Marinette looked stark white and was having a hard time breathing. “Hey, are there any after effects of that drug?”

“No, not that we’ve noticed. Why?”

“Nothing, I’ll talk to you later.” He hung up and threw the phone down, rushing over to her. “Are you okay? What happened?”

Marinette didn’t respond. She couldn’t respond. The spacious room suddenly felt very small, confining, pressing in on her. She felt like she couldn’t move. Breathing was difficult. Where had all the air in the room gone? There wasn’t enough air. She couldn’t get enough air. Her sight was blurring. The only thing she could see was her hand, more specifically the ring on her hand. She was brought back to focus by Jason’s frantic voice. 

“Marinette? Marinette, you’re starting to scare me here. What is going on? Marinette please. You have to use your words.”

She hesitantly looked up at him still looking dazed. “Tha… that… that’s not my ring,” she stuttered out quietly.

Jason looked down at her hand and saw the band on her hand. The distinctly wedding looking band on her ring finger. Oh fuck. Oh fuck fuck fuck fuck. He looked at his own hand and found a distinctly wedding looking tungsten band on his ring finger. Fuuuuuuuck. There weren’t units large enough to accurately measure how monumentally he had fucked up. Alfred was going to be so disappointed. And Ladybug did not seem like the kind of woman who would be cool with him fucking _marrying_ , not to mention _actually_ fucking, someone else while he was flirting with her, of him _using_ some innocent, sweet woman in her place.

“We got married,” she whispered.

He nodded absentmindedly. “That explains coming to Vegas…” He looked around “…and the room. We must have sprung for a honeymoon suite.”

Marinette squeaked in response to that. Tears started to run down her cheeks. Oh God, now he made her cry. Excellent. He was acing this whole thing. “Hey, hey, it’s okay. It’ll be okay,” he said not quite sure if he was reassuring her or himself. “This is Vegas. There has to be a quick and easy way to annul this, yeah? We’ll do that, okay? It will be like this never happened. We never need to see each other after this.”

She wasn’t responding to him. It was like his words didn’t register with her. Her breathing was coming faster again. He recognized the signs of an anxiety attack. Hell, if he hadn’t been trying to comfort her, he might be spiraling into one too. He moved closer to her to comfort her. He reached out to grab her shoulders but paused just short of touching her. A stranger touching her might make it all worse. Instead he lowered his hands and held them out in a placating gesture and lowered his head, trying to capture her gaze. When he finally spoke it was in a soft, gentle voice, “Hey, it’s okay, Marinette. It’s not our fault, okay? My brother said we were hit with some kind of toxin last night. It must be one that messes with your impulses and memory.” He waited for her eyes to focus again and look at him. He smiled gently, “Not. Our. Fault. Yeah?”

“Yeah,” she smiled weakly at him. He was trying very hard and he was very kind. But no matter how kind he was, he wasn’t Red Hood… was he?

“This might sound strange but I don’t suppose you’re Red Hood?” said with a small, strained smile.

Jason’s chest tightened. He stopped breathing. How had she known that? He hadn’t told anyone and neither of them remembered last night, so how could she know? She couldn’t. No, it was a wild guess. It had to be. Maybe she was a fan? Of, fucking fuckity fuck. Please don’t let him have slept with a groupie. He gave her a smile that he hoped looked roguish and said, “Do I look like Red Hood?”

“A little bit, yeah,” she responded quietly.

Fair enough. “No, I’m not. Why?”

“It would just answer a few things,” she responded softly, looking away from him. Not Red Hood, just some random guy she had hooked up with. Probably because he looked a bit like him. Some nice guy she was using as a proxy since she couldn’t get the real thing. Awesome. She’s just a stellar example of a human, isn’t she, she thought bitterly. 

She took a deep, calming breath and nodded to herself. She wiped away her tears and focused back on him. “Do you know a lawyer we can talk to? Where do you think the marriage certificate is? We’re going to need that if we want to get it annulled.” She said more firmly.

“Yeah, I know someone who can be discrete. You go take that shower and I’ll call her and look for the license,” he responded, glad to hear her sounding more in control.

“Sounds good. Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it,” he watched her turn and walk into the bathroom, closing the door behind her. As soon as she was out of sight he sat down and took a deep breath. He had gotten married. He had married a complete stranger. Why would he do that? Why would he sabotage himself like that? He chuckled darkly to himself. That was probably the answer. To sabotage himself. And he decided to drag that innocent, sweet woman into this mess with him. He hung his head in his hands again. Disappointment rolled off of him in waves.

The only thing he could do for her now was to get the marriage annulled as quickly as possible. He needed to find the marriage certificate. After a few minutes he finally found it on the desk in the living room surrounded by a few empty bottles of champagne. He looked at the certificate. It certified that Jason Peter Todd married Marinette Xiang Dupain-Cheng in Vegas last night.

After getting cleaned up and dressed, they made their way to the main floor of the casino. They wandered around until they found what looked like the least pretentious restaurant in the hotel so they could eat and talk in private. 

The host asked them for the name to put the reservation under. Marinette opened her mouth to give a name but immediately snapped it shut twirling around, looking at Jason with wide eyes. “Oh my God… I don’t know my last name. Wait, did I take your last name? No. Never mind. That’s stupid. There is a whole separate process. But still, I don’t know your last name.”

Jason smiled at her. “Yeah, we kind of missed that step. Todd,” he looked at the host. “Put it under Todd for two.” 

The host nodded and looked back down to his reservation list. “Right this way, please,” he motioned for them to follow him.

They started walking but paused when they heard yelling. “Yo! Jason! Mari!” They looked over to see a red headed man running toward them with a big smile. “There you guys are! I was wondering when you would wake up and if you would bother to leave your room today at all.”

“I’m sorry, do I know you?” Marinette asked her brow furrowed confused. The man didn’t seem familiar to her but he was acting like he knew them.

The man gave her a baffled look at her for a second. “Seriously? How drunk did you guys get last night after I left?”

Jason stepped in “Marinette, this is my best friend, Roy. He must have come with us.”

Roy stared at him waiting for the punchline. But they didn’t laugh. Their faces were completely serious. “Yeah, we met yesterday. Remember?” he asked slowly.

“Not really no. Neither of us do. We remember being in Gotham at the beginning of the night but everything after that is gone.” Marinette supplied seriously.

Roy burst out laughing. “Oh my god! Seriously? I’m going to need popcorn for this. You don’t remember yesterday at all?”

“This isn’t funny, Roy.” Jason warned him.

“Oh no, it is. It really, really is.” Roy said, giving him a huge grin and vibrating with excitement. “Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God! This is going to be so good.”

“What is going to be good?” Jason eyed him suspiciously. “What do you know?”

“I know what happened last night and I’m not going to tell you,” he sing songed. “I will say this though. We got here on Oliver’s jet, a wedding present he doesn’t know about yet, so is the room actually, I’ll tell him about it later,” he said conspiratorially before continuing, “also, nobody coerced anyone into anything, and you,” he pointed at Marinette, “know me _a lot_ better than you think you do.”

She stared at him hard. What did that mean? How could she know him if she didn’t remember him? “Oh my God!” she squeaked out. “Oh God. Oh my God!” She started hyperventilating, panicking over the only reason she could think of, “how drugged up was I last night? Tell me we didn’t…”

“Oh God, NO. And thanks for the look of utter disgust, by the way. I’m a mother fucking catch, thank you very much. But agreed,” he said pointing between the two of them, “ew. Plus I don’t have a death wish. No, not in the Biblical sense. In the platonic, trust you with my life, but not my croissant way.”

The host cleared his throat reminding them he was still waiting to take them to a table. They looked at Roy questioningly but he backed out immediately. “You guys go ahead. I’ve already eaten.”

Roy watched them be led into the restaurant. As soon as they were out of ear shot he leaned over to the host and said, “Please tell me there’s a seat at the bar close to where they’re sitting. Maybe one close enough to hear what they’re saying but not one they can see?” he held up a hundred dollar bill. “I don’t want to miss this.”

The host nodded and grabbed the bill, “Right this way, sir”

“Sorry about my friend. He can be like that sometimes.” Jason apologized taking a bite of his food.

“He seems nice. My friends would get along well with him. If you don’t want him, can I keep him in the divorce?”

“I’m going to give that a lot of consideration.” He chuckled lightly. “But it looks like he isn’t going to be any help in piecing last night together. So, what is the last thing you remember before this morning?”

“I remember getting dressed for the night.”

“To do what?”

“Ha… hang out with friends. Honestly, I don’t even remember where we went, just a vague recollection of leaving my apartment. How about you? What do you remember?”

“About the same. Getting ready to go out with my family. I remember meeting up with them. I have a fuzzy memory of messing around with them, but nothing concrete. I don’t even have flashes of anything.” He reviewed what he knew about the night before, which was really just what Tim had told him. “You know, my brother was surprised I couldn’t remember last night. I must have been acting normally while I was with him. So the toxin must not make you act too wildly out of character.”

“I don’t know, getting married to a stranger is pretty wildly out of character for me,” she gave him a wry smile before turning thoughtful. “Your friend seemed surprised that we didn’t remember and he was with us all night. He doesn’t know me enough to know if I’m acting strangely, but he should know you well enough to pick up on whether you were. Are we sure it was the toxin? Because either it wasn’t the toxin, the toxin had a delayed reaction, or the effect was not easily observed.” She leaned back in consideration, “Could we have gotten that drunk, like blackout drunk?”

“That’s awfully drunk. And how drunk did we have to be before even leaving Gotham to decide we were going to get married to strangers? But those are really good points.” 

“I mean, I’m pretty hard to resist. You might not have needed much convincing,” she smiled cheekily at him.

“I have absolutely no doubt about that, Princess,” he smiled back at her. He could see how someone could fall for her. She was beautiful. Her hair fell gently around her face, framing it to bring focus to her mesmerizing eyes. Her dress brought attention to her shape without showing much skin. She had already shown she was a quick thinker, funny, and kind. He could definitely see how he could have ended up with her. But he didn’t love her. He loved someone else. Someone he wanted to get back to and see what she thought of it, see if she would forgive him.

He sighed and ran his hand over his face again. They didn’t have many clues and none of them seemed to fit together. None of this made any sense. He looked over to his temporary wife. Her eyes were pointed toward the flowers on the table but her focus seemed to go beyond. Her brow was furrowed in thought. 

“Come on,” he said downing the last of his drink, “let’s get out of here.”

They just made it out of the restaurant when Roy came up behind them and tossed his arms over their shoulders. “Soooo, since you guys have decided to leave your little love nest and have replenished your energy, how about we hit the craps tables? I’m sure you can _spot_ a winner when you see one, Mari. You are the expert on getting _lucky_ after all.” He said with a wink.

Jason hit his chest, “Don’t be so crass, jackass.”

Marinette’s eyes widened. He knows who she is. How would he know who she is? Did she reveal herself to him last night? Why would she do that? She wouldn’t, right? Even with lowered inhibitions. Not unless he was a hero too. Who does he look like? She stared at him, head cocked to the side, really looking at him. Roughly her age and red hair. So not Batman or one of the batboys. She’d never seen Hood without his helmet but Roy’s build didn’t match Hood’s. Who has red hair? Arsenal. Her head shot up and she straightened up. Red hair, her age, same build… He’s Arsenal! 

But no, that’s not right. If he’s Arsenal… she looked back at Jason. Jason said he was Arsenal’s best friend. Hood is Arsenal’s best friend. Jason is Red Hood. That’s why his body shape looked like Hood’s. She knew her designer eye for measurements wouldn’t let her down like that. She had been right! He was Hood. She married Red Hood. Oh my God!! She married Red Hood! That’s why they got married. She didn’t just marry some random stranger!! Thank God. Wait…

“What do you think? Want to hit the casino before we go back?” Jason asked, completely oblivious to Marinette’s discovery. When she didn’t respond, he turned back toward her only to find her staring at him astonished. “What’s up, Marinette? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

That brought her out of her stupor and her expression quickly morphed into anger. “You!”

“Me…”

“Him” Roy grinned from the side.

“You… you… you absolute ASS. Do you know how guilty I felt? How disappointed in myself I was? All morning! All morning I’ve felt terrible about myself. I felt like I’d betrayed you! And none of it would have happened if you just would have told me the truth! You unbelievably asinine asshole,” she yelled before she stormed off.

Jason stared after her. “What was that about?”

Roy was jumping up and down still grinning like a kid at Christmas, well none of the kids Jason knew, but middle class kids at Christmas. “This is what I’ve been waiting for. Honestly, I’m a little disappointed. It took far less time than I was hoping. My hints were too good. She picked up on them too quickly. I always knew she was smarter than you.” He patted Jason on the back. “Well, go after her. You know you want to.”

Jason looked at him with furrowed brow. “We’re going to discuss this when we get home,” he growled at him. “That woman doesn’t deserve this. You’re playing games and she is the one that’s going to get hurt. Why would you let us get married? Why didn’t you stop me? You know how I feel about Ladybug. Why would you let me marry some stranger?” 

“You know, I do know how you feel and yet I let you elope with Marinette. What does that tell you?” Roy responded with a smug smile.

“It tells me you’re a sadistic fucking asshole and we are done. When we get back to Gotham, I don’t want to see your face again.” He shoved Roy back and ran after Marinette.

He found her in the hotel’s botanic garden pacing back and forth, talking to herself quietly with animated gestures. Watching her caused an annoyingly familiar niggling sensation in the back of his mind, like it was trying to push something to the forefront but getting derailed along the way. He approached her slowly, trying not to upset her more than he already had somehow. “Hey Marinette. You okay? What happened back there?”

She froze for a few seconds before taking a deep breath and turning toward him. She took another few seconds and a deep breath before she continued. Her eyes flicked up to his then turned away focusing on the display of flowers next to them. “I’m trying to decide how upset with you I am.”

Well, that was better than calling him an asshole again. “Okay… Let’s hear the argument either way.”

She looked back at him, staring at him with those beautiful, somehow familiar blue eyes. “Well, on one hand I’ve been feeling absolutely horrible about myself. I was raised not to just end up in bed with someone when I didn’t even know their name. Not even your first name. I’ve never had and never wanted to have a one night stand and here I made it worse by turning a one night stand into a drunken marriage.”

“Sorry,” he said guiltily, shuffling his feet.

“You don’t even know what you are apologizing for yet.” She responded exasperated.

“There’s more?”

“There’s more. And it all could have been avoided if you would have just told me the truth.”

“What did I lie about? I’ve tried to be completely truthful with you.”

“Really?” She looked around again to make sure nobody could overhear them “You want to try that one again, Hood?” despite knowing nobody was around she still lowered her voice with the last word.

“Excuse me?” He looked around too “I don’t know why you keep saying that….” He looked at her and stopped. Her deadpan expression let him know that she knew. She _knew_ and nothing he said would convince her otherwise. He moved closer to her and lowered his voice, “You really need to be careful about what you say. If the wrong person hears my identity it could get me or one of the other vigilantes killed. And someone who isn’t the wrong person now could become the wrong person with the right pressure. It is safest for everyone if nobody else knows.”

“I was careful. The only one close enough to hear is Roy.” She said indicating the other side of the hedges they were standing next to.

His head whipped around toward the hedge and he glared looking for his friend. Finally spotting his red shirt through some leaves he yelled “What the fuck, Roy?”

“What!? I told you I’ve been waiting for this. And finally! Finally it’s happening. I’m not going to miss it. Now pay attention or you’re going to miss the best part.”

“Best part?” he asked confused, turning to Marinette.

She sighed “God, it’s a miracle you idiots are still alive,” she said shaking her head. “That’s the other side. I understand the importance of a secret identity and I can’t honestly say I would have responded any differently if you had asked me if I was Ladybug.” She looked up at him softly.

“So… which side won? Are you still upset with me?” he asked.

She stared at him incredulously. He couldn’t be serious, could he? Red Hood was smarter than this. Maybe she had gotten it wrong because Hood was impulsive but he wasn’t stupid. But Roy’s response confirmed her original suspicion, “Seriously? What did I say about her being smarter? You’re supposed to be a great detective. I’m taking away that title. You’re never allowed to claim anything like it again. And, I’m telling Dick about this when we get home so he can remind you when I’m not around.”

Jason looked between the two of them, replaying what she said. He had clearly missed something. She had said something important. What did she say? She said she would have done the same. So she isn’t upset, right? No, that isn’t it. There was something more to deserve the way they were both looking at him. She would have done the same if he had asked if she was… “Ladybug! You’re Ladybug!”

“What were you just saying about secret identities? Maybe try not to let all of Vegas know.”

He smiled down at her almost reverently. He reached out to touch her face hesitantly and ran his other hand through her hair, just to confirm to himself that it was her. She was real and she was right there in front of him. She was Ladybug. Marinette was Ladybug. And she was here with him. “Hey, Pixie.”

She smiled sweetly back at him and leaned into his hand on her face. “Hey, Red.”

His smile grew wider, “Marinette…” he said gently as if testing to see how the name felt on his tongue. “Your name is Marinette.” 

She returned the smile “And yours is Jason. It’s nice to finally be able to see your face,” she said caressing his face and moving his bangs off of his face.

“Soooo, are we still done?” Roy interrupted smugly.

Jason huffed in response, annoyed at the interruption of their moment. “No, I forgive you. Now, fuck off, Roy.” He returned his attention back to Marinette. “Think you’ll be able to focus on our missions knowing this,” indicating his face, “is under that helmet?”

She rolled her eyes “You think there is anything more distracting than that helmet? If I can block that out, I can block anything out.” She smirked up at him.

“Rude.” He responded in mock offense. He smiled down at her, “Because I don’t know if I’ll be able to.” She looked at him in confusion “I don’t think I’ll be able to focus now that I know who’s under the mask.” He brushed her bangs out of her eyes and ran his thumb over her cheek.

His eyes looked down to her lips and he leaned down. He flicked his eyes back up to hers as if asking permission. She smiled in response and rose up on her toes to get closer. “Hey!” they jumped apart and turned to Roy. A casino security guard had grabbed him and was pulling him away. “I wasn’t peeping. They are in public. It isn’t illegal to watch two people in public and they are my friends. Do you know how long I’ve been waiting for this? Do you know how long I’ve had to put up with them?”

The large security guard turned to the couple and asked, “Do you know this man?”

“No officer, I can’t say we do.” Jason grabbed Marinette’s hand and pulled her behind him, “Come on, let’s talk back in the room. Where we can get a little privacy,” he said aside to her but loudly enough for the guard to hear as he pulled her out of the garden and back toward their room.

“Not fucking funny, Jason. Jason? Jason!” Roy yelled after their retreating figures as they ran away.

“Come on, son. Let’s have a little talk about respecting other people’s boundaries.”

“Do you know what a slow-burn is, sir?” the guard looked at him through narrowed eyes but bobbed his head slightly to indicate that he was familiar with the concept. “I’ve been living through a real life 200,000 word slow burn story with those two and I’m finally, _finally_ seeing the payoff. Please, sir. I’ve earned this.”

They stood next to each other during the elevator ride up to their floor, still holding hands and shooting each other soft looks and shy grins. He smiled down at her as he opened their room door. As soon as the door closed, Marinette’s phone rang. “Damn it. I have to answer this. Sorry,” she said looking apologetically up at him. “Excuse me just a second.” She walked into the bedroom as she started talking.

Jason watched her walk away with a smile. Ladybug. He’d married Ladybug. _Ladybug_ was his _wife!_ Jason couldn’t believe it. No matter how many times he repeated it, it didn’t seem real. He smiled as he looked out over Vegas. His bliss was cut short by his phone ringing this time. He checked and saw it was the Wayne Enterprises lawyer he had contacted earlier in the day. “This is Jason,” he answered. “Uh huh. Yeah. Got it. We might want to put that on hold for now. Yeah, I’ll let you know. Thanks.” He hung up and looked toward the bedroom door. Everything was different now that they knew each others’ identities. At least it was for him. He wasn’t sure if it was for her. They hadn’t had that conversation yet. They needed to talk about what they both wanted to do.

Jason cracked the bedroom door slightly, poking his head in to see if Marinette was still on the phone. He found her standing against the windows looking out over Vegas as she spoke on the phone. He frowned noting her frustrated expression. “No, I'll be back as soon as I can. Yeah I know. It was a mistake. I wasn’t thinking. Yeah, yeah, I know that.” She paused listening to the person on the other end of the phone. “I know! I’m sorry. I'm going to fix it as soon as I can, okay. It’ll be like it never happened. Yeah, I’ll talk to you tomorrow after it’s done, okay?” She hung up the phone.

He backed out of the room and quietly closed the door. His heart clenched. He couldn’t breathe. She thought their marriage was a mistake and she was looking forward to getting out of it as soon as possible. He had read the whole thing wrong. He was so stupid. She hadn’t been interested in him. Of course she wasn’t. They were just flirting, having fun. It didn’t mean anything to her. 

His head popped up as the bedroom door opened and she came out looking at him sheepishly. “Sorry about that.”

“No, it’s okay,” he said gathering himself and trying to even out his voice. She didn’t need to know how devastated he was. They could go back to the way they were. They’d get the marriage annulled and they’d just go back to… what? Friends? Flirting? He didn’t know. “I just got a call from the lawyer. She says she can see us tomorrow to start the annulment proceedings.”

“Oh… right.” Her smile faltered but she quickly recovered and plastered on a fake smile. “We should probably head back to Gotham soon so we don’t miss it then.”

“Right,” he agreed. He stared at the floor for a few awkward moments without moving. “I’ll… I’ll go talk to Roy about getting the jet ready to head back.”

“Thanks Jason.” She offered him a strained smile. “I guess I’ll start picking up our things in here to get ready.”

Jason just nodded in response and left to find Roy’s room.

Jason paced the hallway trying to calm his racing heart down. He was fighting the need to punch something. He whipped his head around when he heard the sound of the elevator arriving on the floor. Roy walked out and spotted him immediately. “Not cool, man.” He scolded Jason before he saw his expression. “Hey, what happened?”

“How soon can you get the jet prepped to leave?” Jason demanded coldly.

“I can have it ready by tomorrow morning. Why? Are you seriously going to head back so soon? Don't you want to extend the honeymoon more than one day?” he waggled his eyebrows at Jason.

“It’s not a honeymoon. You don’t get a honeymoon for marriages that aren’t real,” Jason let out bitterly.

“Not real? Seriously? It looked pretty real to me.” Jason glared at him. He had missed something. Something had to have happened in the 15 minutes between when he last saw them and now. They had been doing that sappy, in love thing couples did before. “You could make it one.” Roy suggested hesitantly.

“She isn’t interested. She made that very clear.” Jason growled back.

“When?” Roy asked in shock.

“All fucking day, Roy. She’s mentioned the annulment constantly and I just walked in on her telling someone about what a huge mistake this has been.”

“Are those the words she used? ‘Getting married to Jason was a mistake.’” Roy asked slowly.

“Not those exact words…”

“So you don’t know if she was talking about the marriage or something else?” Roy interrupted before Jason could finish.

“Come on, what else could it have meant?” Jason asked exasperated. 

“Anything,” Roy was close to yelling from frustration. He had worked too hard for them to throw this away now. “Maybe she was talking about not telling her parents before the wedding and now she feels guilty for springing it on them. Maybe it was leaving without warning Bruce. Maybe it was missing a day of work. Maybe it was wearing that dress today. You don’t know.”

“She’s been pushing annulment all day. And there’s nothing wrong with that dress on her at all.” Jason answered quickly.

“Agreed but, she was pushing for the annulment before she knew you were Red Hood, when she thought she had married some random guy who looked vaguely like Red Hood because the real Hood wasn’t interested.” Roy took a deep breath. He knew them. He knew how they really felt about each other. Anyone who had spent any time around the two of them knew. But he couldn’t force them to stay in the relationship. Brute force would just result in both of their stubborn asses digging their heels in and fighting harder. 

How would Alfred deal with this? Alfred would be gentle, delicate, a guiding light. He looked around trying to find the words. Delicate wasn’t his forte. He needed Jason to come to this conclusion on his own. “Look Jay, you guys got gassed, lost all your inhibitions, and the first thing you guys decided to do wasn’t to have sex, which absolutely would have been my first move, it wasn’t even to make out, though you did do that, a lot, later, in front of everyone. But your _first_ instinct was to reveal yourselves to each other and get married.” He paused for a moment to let that sink in. “Your most basic, primal instinct, was to make a commitment to each other. That has to mean something, right? That doesn’t sound fake to me.” He looked Jason in the eyes, “Just talk to her, okay? Don’t do something you’re going to regret because you’re stubborn and afraid.”

“I’m not…” Jason looked down and nodded. He couldn’t even deny that what was driving him. “I’ll talk to her, but you should probably get the jet ready. And you might want to make room for me on the couch.”

He took a deep, calming breath before he opened the room door. He saw her immediately. She was leaning on the balcony railing and looking at the ring on her finger with a sad smile. The wind was gently blowing her hair around her face and making her dress flutter around her legs. The sun was shining on her face making her look ethereal. He lost his breath. She was gorgeous. He didn’t deserve her, he knew that. She was smart and brave, bold and kind, creative and beautiful... and his wife. However he'd managed it, they were married and he'd be an idiot to throw that away. And no matter what Damian thought, he was no idiot.

He approached her quietly, leaning against the railing next to her. “Whatcha thinking about, Pix?”

She startled slightly and stuttered out “Oh… um… No… nothing… just never thought this is how I would end up married. I never thought I’d come to Vegas at all, let alone get married here.”

“Me either,” he smiled gently at her.

“Oh no, I totally thought that’s the way you’d get married,” she laughed.

“Oi!” he squawked in fake offense, making her laugh even harder. He quickly joined in her laughter. The laughter settled after a few moments. He stared at the fountain in front of the hotel in contemplation before deciding to take Roy’s advice and ask the question he needed to ask, well, the first of a few. God he hoped this turned out better than how things usually turned out when he listened to Roy.

“What was the call you took earlier?” he asked hesitantly.

“What call? The call when we got in the room?” she asked confused. Why was that important now? He nodded his heart beating wildly. “It was my business manager. I was supposed to put through a rush order to a fabric manufacturer this morning so we could get the fabric we need in time for a commission. He was _really_ upset with me,” she grimaced. “But Adrien is kind of a drama queen so he’ll be fine as soon as I fix it. I promised I would take care of it as soon as I could and try to fix it so we don’t lose the commission.”

He let out a relieved breath. It was work. She had been talking about work, not their marriage. She didn’t regret their marriage. Or, maybe she did. He needed to find out. “Does that mean you never pictured yourself getting married to me?”

She sputtered out in response. “What?”

“You said you didn’t picture yourself getting married in Vegas, but you did picture me doing it. Does that mean you never pictured yourself marrying me?”

“Did you picture yourself marrying me?” She deflected hoping he wouldn’t notice the heavy blush on her cheeks.

He looked her in the eyes, sincerity shining through as he looked at her softly. “Yes.”

Looked at him in surprise “What?”

“This isn’t how I pictured it, but I absolutely pictured myself marrying you one day. I’d marry you anyway you let me, Marinette. I love you.”

Tears started running down her cheeks. She felt Jason gently wipe them from her cheeks. “We can still get this annulled if you want, if you aren’t ready. But know that I want to be married to you. If you aren’t ready now, I can wait. We can get the annulment and see what happens from there. If you aren’t interested at all, and God I hope that isn’t the case, then never. And we stay friends, if you want. You control this.”

She looked at him in wonder. “You want to stay married?” She asked hesitantly, seeking confirmation. This couldn’t be real. This was too perfect. This was everything she was hoping for, being married to Jason. He nodded, smiling softly at her. She smiled back at him, “I… I want to stay married.”

“Yeah?” His gave her a blinding smile.

“Yeah.” She beamed at him and cupped his face. “I love you, Jason, so much. You’re amazing. I don’t think you really realize how amazing you are. You have such a huge heart. You’re funny and brave. You make me feel understood, loved. I don’t know that I deserve you, but I hope I can make you feel like you make me feel.”

“You deserve so much more than me, so much better than me,” he said quietly, looking at her lovingly and playing with her hair gently. “I’m going to try to make you understand how incredible you truly are every single day.” He leaned down to kiss her. Her eyes closed in anticipation.

She could feel his breath on her lips when Jason’s phone rang. She giggled when he grunted at it before hitting the end call button. He gave her an apologetic smile and brushed her bangs out of her face before leaning down again. Before their lips could touch his phone rang again. He groaned in frustration and hit end call again. He started leaning down again when both his and her phones rang. She giggled “I think you better answer that. It’s probably Batman. We don’t want him to send a rescue team.”

Jason grunted and aggressively hit the button to answer the call “Yeah, B I’m fine. Yeah, she’s fine too. No, I’m not coming home tonight. Neither is Ladybug. We’re on our honeymoon.” He turned his phone off and threw it into the room. Marinette smiled giddily at him. He crashed his lips to hers before anything else could interrupt. He pulled her closer and angled his head to deepen the kiss and add even more passion. She wound her arms around his neck and pulled his hair to bring him closer to her. He moaned into her lips and ran his hands along her sides until he reached her thighs and grabbed them to pick her up so she could wrap her legs around his waist. They broke the kiss to take deep breaths, grinning happily before diving in for a searing kiss laced with all the want and pent up lust they’d been feeling for each other for the last year. He stood up and walked her back into the bedroom, both of them removing clothing along the way and throwing it haphazardly, making the room look very much like it had the night before.


End file.
